Phenom II 965 C3 wants more V!

Greetings,
I was running a small OC of 3.8GHz on my CPU @ 1.375v (1.376v with Load-Load Calibration set either to High or Ultra High, on Extreme is goes over 1.400v) for about 2 weeks, then a new BIOS version came out for my board, I went ahead and update it and since that day, my CPU no longer runs @ 3.8GHz 1.375v.
I have yet to find what V it needs now, just befuddled by this. ¿How can this be? I tried going back to my old BIOS to no avail.
¿Any thought on this weird BS? Thanks in advance.

An important question here is what kind of core temps are you getting? Overclocking without monitoring core temps is dangerous to equipment. Your voltages don't sound excessive at all as long as your core temps are under control.

My suggestion is to download and install the temp/voltage monitoring software: "HWMonitor". Leave the CPU core voltage and the LLC where it is. Lower the CPU core multiplier to a little to where it is stable. Then run 20 minutes of Prime95 (a stress testing program). Report back to us with what your max core temps were at the end of that time.

The other issue is you don't say how you overclocked. If you were using the CPU frequency (aka, "fsb" or "HT Reference") to overclock it is likely you exceeded the stable frequency of some component like the HT Link, the CPUNB or the ram.

Please download and install the free program: CPU-z. Run the program and attach pics of these three tabs: "CPU", "Memory" and "SPD". To attach pics, first crop and save the images to disk with "Snipping Tool" in Windows Accessories. Then click on the Go Advanced button at the bottom of any new post windows. When the Advanced post window appears, click on the little paperclip icon at the top. That will bring up the file browser/upload tool. The rest will be obvious. CPU-z pics will give us a snapshot of your system and many important bios settings.

And in you overclocking, did you increase the CPUNB voltage? That would be necessary to attain stability at higher overclocks.

Another question is : If your system was rock steady stable with zero issues, why would you update the bios? A rule of thumb is if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Bios updates are needed when a system is unstable or having issues. If the system is running as it should, overclocked or stock, then a bios update is not needed.

Suggest you do what trents recommended and see. If this does not work, then I suggest you revert back to the bios your system was using before the update.

My OC was always done via increasing the CPU multiplier from 17 to 19. Didn't OC the CPU-NB nor increased the voltages.
One of the reason why I updated the BIOS was to test it and second it had a new feature of VRM MOS protection.

I've always monitored everything, that was never an issue.
After that BIOS update (is the only thing I can think of that would cause this) everything went to hell, I can't OC or modify anything anymore, it all results in instability, things I could before. The CPU was just an example.

I up-dated my BIOS to the previous version, but nothing changed.

I guess my last resort would be to somehow force my Motherboard to use and restore the back up BIOS it had on a second chip.

tikithorsen said:

My OC was always done via increasing the CPU multiplier from 17 to 19. Didn't OC the CPU-NB nor increased the voltages.
One of the reason why I updated the BIOS was to test it and second it had a new feature of VRM MOS protection.

I've always monitored everything, that was never an issue.
After that BIOS update (is the only thing I can think of that would cause this) everything went to hell, I can't OC or modify anything anymore, it all results in instability, things I could before. The CPU was just an example.

I up-dated my BIOS to the previous version, but nothing changed.

I guess my last resort would be to somehow force my Motherboard to use and restore the back up BIOS it had on a second chip.

Click to expand...

I would certainly try that. My experience with Gigabyte is their bioeses are often buggy.

it had a new feature of VRM MOS protection. = The VRM is what gives us the voltages for cpu and the like. It is n0t any surprise that your cpu voltage is now different when they mess with trying to protect it.

Looks like you now need to consider adding some voltage to the CPU cores if you want to overclock.

Goddamn Gigabyte.
Thanks for the tips.
¿Any ideas how to force the MoBo to restore the backup chip contents?

tikithorsen said:

¿Any ideas how to force the MoBo to restore the backup chip contents?

Click to expand...

That information should be in your motherboard manual or at Gigabyte website. It may vary from board to board and I would make sure that I was looking at how-to that Gigabyte intends for your particular motherboard.

I am going to do an Edit here: about this >> Any ideas how to force the MoBo to restore the backup chip contents? I don't think you want to know how to do that "force" thing since it is n0t easy nor full-proof at all as I begin to understand after an hour of g00gle.

A little dual bios background. The secondary bios is to "kick-in" if the first bios is failed. Your primary bios is not failed. You just don't like it. Gigabyte has written an email to a couple of peeps about getting the secondary to kick in if the first is not bad...lots of luck since the email says specifically that the procedure may fail and then RMA is next.

Next >> when in bios you should be able to click on system info and the secondary and primary bios versions should be listed. However there is n0 guarantee that the bios on the secondary bios chip is actually the bios version you flashed away from to get into this situation. That aside it maybe the version of bios you flashed away from. You should also know what bios version you flashed away from to go the latest with the VRM-MOS protect feature in it. If you know the actual bios version you flashed away from then go to Gigabyte website and download it and flash it back to that with something other than @BioS since it has seemed to give many grief.
End Edit.

This new dual bios MoBos don't have individual BIOS chips,so when you update yours, the other one gets updated too.

The BIOS I had before was F6, I'm on F6 now but I have the same problem, it befuddles me!
I don't know what do do anymore; I'll send a mail to GB support and wait for the next BIOS update I guess.

:O

I was on my BIOS and I accidentally press a key (not sure which one) and it pop'd this:



I reckon this is good news, IF I can restore that BIOS.
Now I have to figure out how to accomplish that...

Yes the system info menu that lists primary and secondary bios versions as said in post #9.


Dual BIOS In Detail

Know one thing about the description that is given there that they make "no mention" of the IC that is monitoring the back and forth to see if the first bios is failed.

Like I said I doubt you have any interest in flashing both bios chips to the same bios version since it requires jumpering that IC just right and making moves within seconds of just in time to make the bios chips become alike. Not for the amatuer at all from what I read.

I'm interested in forcing a restore from the backup BIOS, the F5 to the main bios, the F7 to see if that solves my issue.
Useless Gigabyte forums never sent me the account validation forums, I tried with 3 different e-mails.

A good place to get started.

There is a way to "force" boot from the backup flash.

Thanks again! Also, I made a ticket on Gigabytes tech support, lets see what they reply.

tikithorsen said:

lets see what they reply.

Click to expand...

From all the other people talking to Gigabyte, they will say nothing that helps except in the end to RMA the board in just about every post I saw.

See what I cannot understand is why you don't get the previous bios and just flash it back to the primary bios chip and be done with it. But if you are not or cannot...well so it goes. Good luck.

I did, flashed back to F6 but it made no difference whatsoever. If that is indeed Gigabytes response I guess I'll try to flash back to F5 and I can't chose what BIOS chip to flash, it only does the main one, that's why the back up still has the BIOS that the MoBo was shipped with.

tikithorsen said:

that's why the back up still has the BIOS that the MoBo was shipped with.

Click to expand...

That is not necessarily accurate. You did not say which bios your motherboard shipped with. Did you flash F6 since you got the board? And is the F6 the bios that worked so good until you flashed to the next one? Since those bios chips do not transfer bios files until there is an issue, and IF you knew which bios you were having success with at first...then that is the bios file I would be flashing most likely in DOS mode from a Usb stick with bios flashing parameters set so the whole bios is flashed.

It does not make a hoot what bios is on the secondary bios since it has never been used. You don't say what primary bios you used originally and that bios "should" flash back onto the primary and if it will not do what you think it did before then that primary bios chip must be bad and you need to RMA the motherboard OR there are other issues that could mean the same thing >> the board needs to be RMA'd.

RGone said:

That is not necessarily accurate. You did not say which bios your motherboard shipped with. Did you flash F6 since you got the board? And is the F6 the bios that worked so good until you flashed to the next one? Since those bios chips do not transfer bios files until there is an issue, and IF you knew which bios you were having success with at first...then that is the bios file I would be flashing most likely in DOS mode from a Usb stick with bios flashing parameters set so the whole bios is flashed.

It does not make a hoot what bios is on the secondary bios since it has never been used. You don't say what primary bios you used originally and that bios "should" flash back onto the primary and if it will not do what you think it did before then that primary bios chip must be bad and you need to RMA the motherboard OR there are other issues that could mean the same thing >> the board needs to be RMA'd.

Click to expand...

My motherboard came out of the box with the F5 BIOS, I updated to F6 a few days later and everything was peachy, then a few days ago I updated it to the F7 and this started to happen.
I flashed the F6 and even the F5 and the issue persisted. I have yet to notice any other issue. This motherboard is but a month old.
Thing is, in the *beep*hole I live the RMA is not 10% of what its in US, CA or EU, here is more like "Well, we'll take a week to check it, then another week to tell you about it and then another week to tell your retailer so he can pick it up and then I have to go to my retailer to pick it up. And that is if you are lucky. For example, this motherboard should have a 3 year warranty, but here only has 1 year.

I'll just wait for Gigabytes response and/or a new BIOS (though chances are it won't make any difference) before trying to RMA this.
Thanks for the help.